Mario Party: Island Tour review (3DS): Badly designed board games

Release Date: January 17 (Europe), Out now (North America)Platforms available on:Nintendo 3DSDeveloper: Nd CubePublisher: NintendoGenre: Party

As the thirteenth game in the series, Mario Party: Island Tour proves that Mario and his chums can party harder than the cast of Geordie Shore at a free bar.

Maybe years of loud music and late nights have made Mario hard of hearing and fuzzy headed, however, because Mario Party: Island Tour is as laborious and reliant on luck as its predecessors - problems we seem to have been complaining about for years.

It's such a shame, because on the rare occasion you do encounter them, Mario Party: Island Tour's mini-games are among the best we've played.

There are more than 80 games to tuck into, testing players' memories, rhythm, reflexes, speed and cunning.

Whether its striking chords on a xylophone, rounding up bunnies, racing submarines or kicking bombs at each other, the games are easy to pick up and play, a lot of fun and diverse.

Unskilled guessing games such as 'Helter Shellter', in which players hunt for treasure by choosing random seashells, are fortunately few and far between, outnumbered by games that require a little skill.

Mini-game compilations are the most entertaining aspect of Mario Party: Island Tour, eclipsing board games that are either too brief, frustrating or both.

There are even a few bonus extras, such as an addictive Dr Mario/Tetris hybrid, as well as a genuinely funny impersonation game using the 3DS microphone.

Not all games are wholly original - how many times have we seen the sliding picture puzzle? - but there's enough variety and charm to prevent feelings of déjà vu from setting in.

In Ready, Aim, Fuzzy, players attempt to take out Fuzzies with one arrow

If it's mini-games you crave, they can be accessed from the main menu or via 'Bowser's Tower', an endurance mode in which players attempt to ascend a building by beating games.

Though not as fully developed as the board games in Party mode, players can also attempt to best mini-games in the quickest time possible via 'Time Attack', or take on up to three additional players in 'Balloon Race', where the aim is fly to victory by racking up victories.

Tucked away and accessed as extras, these mini-game compilations are the most entertaining aspect of Mario Party: Island Tour, eclipsing board games that are either too brief, frustrating or both.

Take 'Perilous Palace Path', for example. Not only is it sluggish, thanks to pages of unnecessary instructions, tips and reminders, but it values luck over skill to overcome obstacles and avoid detours.

Despite containing all of the series' long-standing flaws, it's still somehow the best of a bad bunch, which doesn't say a lot for the competition.

'Perilous Palace Path' does at least feature semi-regular mini-games, items that offer genuine strategical advantages and a decent running time - even if a lot of that time is taken up by reading text.

'Banzai Bill's Mad Mountain', on the other hand, is over in minutes, features one round of mini-games at best, and requires very little strategy but a whole lot of luck.

Likewise, 'Rocket Road', which sees players race to the end of the board using dice multipliers, features "event" squares that are a lot less eventful than they sound.

If the developers are assuming that people will have less time to play, then why not take out the text, remove the cutscenes, stop reminding everybody whose turn it is, and start putting in some mini-games?

With nice colourful visuals, lots of Nintendo characters and references, great mini-games and single-cartridge multiplayer, Mario Party: Island Tour has the potential to be a great handheld party game.

Ultimately, however, it feels like going on an island tour in a hot and cramped bus that's traveling at 10mph. There are things to see and fun to be had, but only if you're prepared to wait for it.